The Body in the Casket

“But, Mrs. Fairchild, while I am sure you are superb as a caterer, I am hiring you for what I understand is your other expertise. Your, shall we say, sleuthing ability?”

“My sleuthing? But why?”

“One of my guests wants to kill me.”

For most of her adult life, caterer and amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild has called the sleepy Massachusetts town of Aleford home. While the native New Yorker has come to know the region well, she isn’t familiar with Havencrest, a secluded enclave for the wealthy. When she gets a call from Havencrest resident Max Dane, a legendary Broadway producer planning his seventieth birthday party, Faith is intrigued. Neither the community nor Rowan House, Max’s sprawling mansion, exists in her GPS, but that’s not the most puzzling thing about this job.

As they discuss the party’s menu, Max reveals that one of his guests is planning to serve up a vastly different dish: murder. Faith’s only clue is a sinister birthday gift Max received the week before—an empty casket sent anonymously, containing a twenty-year-old Playbill from his final, and only failed, production, Heaven or Hell. In response, Max has drawn his guest list from the show’s cast and crew, in what may become a deadly reunion. As an ice storm brews overhead and the guests begin to arrive, Faith must keep one eye on the menu and the other on her host to prevent his birthday bash from becoming his final curtain.